Miller, the Pacers’ guard who has been so much a part of Knick playoff lore and legend, fired the first salvo of the Eastern Conference Finals rematch that starts here tonight by claiming to hate Spike Lee’s favorite team. While the “H” word did not spill from Miller’s lips yesterday, he was asked if he had said he hates the Knicks.

“Yes,” said Miller, averaging 25points through 10 playoff games after an 18.1 point regular-season average.

“I just don’t like them. I respect them, though. What’s wrong with that?” added Miller. “[Hate] is a very strong word. That doesn’t mean I don’t like the New York media, though.”

Excuse us for getting warm and mushy.

Miller stressed his distaste for the Knicks comes from a perceived arrogance on their part. The Knicks, Miller claimed, refuse to give the same respect they demand from others.

“I just think they always think they’re bigger and badder than everyone,” Miller said. “They really don’t want to give no one else respect. We know they don’t give us no respect. So why should I give respect to someone who doesn’t give us respect?”

And so here we have another rite of spring, the Knicks and Pacers colliding in the post-season, which is as much a part of New York’s annual NBA agenda as beating Miami in a gut-churning decisive game. The Pacers, in Larry Bird’s coaching hurrah, are determined to get to the Finals this time. After all, the window of opportunity is slamming shut. As it has been now for, oh, about a decade and a half.

“We always seem to be in this same spot. I know there are a lot of younger teams that would love to keep going to the Eastern Conference finals,” Miller, 34, assessed. “A lot of players have been on vacation for about a month-and-a-half now, watching the games from the Bahamas and Jamaica and Antigua, Aruba.

“I’d rather be in this position than sipping a Mai-Tai right now.”

The easiest way for Miller to disrespect his long-time post-season rivals would be to continue having the type of playoffs he has mustered in series victories over Milwaukee and Philadelphia.

Miller arose against Milwaukee and rescued the Pacers with games of 41 and 34 points. Against the Sixers, after sitting out a fifth game suspension, Miller dumped in 25 as Indiana took the series with a 106-90 sixth-game triumph.

Or Miller could just revert back to those days when he staged spectacular shooting and scoring displays. In 29 playoff games – the Pacers are 14-15 in those games and 2-3 in series’ ets – Miller has torched the Knicks for a 23.3 average.

Miller will forever be remembered for one of the greatest efforts in NBA playoffs history when he unleashed a stunning eight-point barrage in the final 16.4 seconds of the 1995 Eastern semis to obliterate a six-point Knick lead and propel Indiana to a 107-105 triumph which led them to a series victory and a berth in the Conference Finals.

And so there exists a mutual hate-respect feeling on both sides. New Yorkers tend to view everyone west of the Hudson as corn-fed mutants with the collective IQ of a bag of pebbles. And they’ll hate Reggie to pieces – but only because he doesn’t wear orange and blue. Both sides may not like the other, but they give grudging respect.

“Personally, I wanted to play New York,” said Miller, who adores the big stage of the Garden and sees this as a chance to expunge some of the most bitter defeats in Indiana’s history. “We need to exorcise some demons. We’ve beaten New York, but never in the Conference Finals. Detroit had to get by Boston. Chicago had to get by Detroit. There’s always those teams that you’ve got to get by to get to the next level. New York is that team for us.”